


The Breakup

by great_turkey_calamity



Series: Sharkandegg Cinematic Universe (kids) [4]
Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Their daughter got cheated on, and june comes to the rescue, definitely not beta read, henry shares a story with her, they are angry and panicking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:07:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26886349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/great_turkey_calamity/pseuds/great_turkey_calamity
Summary: Henry and Alex’s daughter is cheated on. They aren’t sure how to comfort her.
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Series: Sharkandegg Cinematic Universe (kids) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944718
Comments: 10
Kudos: 114





	The Breakup

**Author's Note:**

> Woop woop more kid fic with @sharkandegg’s OCs

Henry’s only been legitimately furious a handful of times in his life.

Tonight just so happens to be one of those nights.  
  


Sophie is clinging to Alex, crying silently with her face buried in his shoulder. He’s angry too, but there’s more to it; he’s panicked. Their daughter rarely cries, rarely allows herself to be so vulnerable and open when it comes to her emotions. It unsettles him, to see her like this. Alex is comforting her as best as he can, shushing her and rubbing comforting circles into her back. She seems to sob harder despite this.

She’s ended her six-month long relationship with some little boy that Henry’s never particularly cared for. He’d seen something sleazy in him— something more sinister— right from the start, but could never lay a finger on it. He suspects he was right, considering Sophie quite literally came downstairs ten minutes ago, announced the end of their relationship, and started sobbing.  
  


“Why did you two break up? I thought that you and Scott were doing just fine.” Henry asks, making a point to ask questions, but letting his daughter carry the conversation for the most part.   
  


“ _God_ ,” Sophie breathes, pulling away from Alex’s hold to wipe at her eyes. She sniffs, corrects her posture, and folds her hands in her lap. “I, uhm, I found out that he was cheating on me with another girl.” She admits, nodding in confirmation.

  
Henry feels his blood run cold, going tense and rigid with rage.

“You’re _kidding_.” Alex speaks up, looking at her incredulously. “He actually cheated on you?”

“I wouldn’t lie about something like this, Pops.” Sophie reaffirms, wiping at her eyes again, looking a mess with her unraveling bun and wrinkled pajamas, her cardigan pulled down over her hands. Her nails are bit to hell and back, lashes soaked with tears both fresh and old.

“Does the other girl know?” Henry speaks up, being extremely careful about what he says. “If not, you ought to get around to telling her.”

“I already did,” She replies. “It was Alice Ahn— her mom’s on the school board. I talked to her as soon I heard. She had no idea.“  
  


“I’m calling June, this is fucking ridiculous.” Alex states, walking out of the room with his phone clutched in his fist. He’s mad— he has every right to be— but he’s definitely having trouble keeping this anger concealed. Henry suspects that he would be too, had he not been trained to conceal his emotions until he was in his early twenties.  
  


Sophie sighs shakily, leaning on Henry, putting her full weight on him. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel, or what I’m supposed to do. I don’t know where I went wrong; I don’t know what I _did_.” She breathes, sniffling and wheezing between words.

He immediately starts playing with her hair, taking it down and combing his fingers through it, separating it into two sections. “You didn’t _do_ anything, love. People are just awful creatures sometimes.” He says, starting to braid one of the sections. “You’re allowed to be upset, and you’re allowed to cry. You’re allowed to be angry. He’s just thrown your heart on the ground, and honestly, you’re handling it quite well.”

“Have you ever had your heart broken?” She asks, voice raw and shaking, and Henry is taken aback by the question.  
  


“Well, not in the traditional sense, but yes. I’ve had my fair share of pain when it comes to romance.” He supplies.

“What do you mean?”

He sighs, tying the first braid back with an elastic. 

“Your father was my first and only true heartbreak— don’t _turn around_ , I’m still working on your hair!” He exclaims when she wheels around to stare at him, all wide-eyed and confused. “If you promise not to tell your siblings, I’ll tell you how we got to this point.”

“I promise.” She replies, and she has something in her voice that Henry can’t place, something that isn’t sadness or anger or sensitivity; it sounds empty, and it breaks his heart to know that his daughter— his _baby_ — is so upset, and that another person did this to her.

So, he begins, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he can comprehend what he’s actually saying. He starts with Rio, with Alexander’s frizzy hair and bright, naive eyes, with his Southern drawl and the ipê-amarelo in his pocket. He starts with the death of his father, how everything had been building up in his heart and mind to unbearable points. He starts with disregarding Alex, with begging Shaan to get Henry away from him as soon as possible, and the not-so-mutual distaste and friction between them over the next four years.

“So Pops, like, hated you.” Sophie clarifies as Henry braids the other section of her sandy blonde hair, still occasionally sniffing and hiccuping.  
  


Henry laughs. “Oh, yeah. Anytime we saw each other in public, he had some bone to pick with me. Given, neither of us knew the other’s circumstances. But he _loathed_ me, and it all came to a boiling point at your uncle’s wedding.”

“What happened?” She questions, clinging to every word, like this story is her fictional escape from a painful, burning reality.   
  


He tells her about dancing with June and pining from across the room, Alex having far too much to drink and just itching to start a fight. He speaks of the argument, the scuffle, and the downfall, frosting and champagne coating suits worth several thousand dollars and a sea of wide, shocked eyes mirroring their own.

“So, obviously, that wasn’t good.” He chuckles. “And we weren’t about to cost your grandmother her re-election, so our teams worked together and came up with a plan; we had to pretend that it was some friendly mishap, and that we were absolutely inseparable, just two best friends that got carried away.”

“What kind of _romcom_ were you living in?”

“I’m still not sure, but it was very eventful, as you’ve heard.”

He continues, telling her everything. He talks about Alex coming to Kensington, how beautiful he looked with his messy hair and readers perched on the end of his nose. He speaks of New Years, when they first kissed, of secret rendezvous in Paris and Berlin. Of doing karaoke in LA and realizing that, perhaps in a different life, he could have something more _domestic_ with Alex, something more _tender_ and _quiet_. He talks about Austin, about meeting Oscar and the dead heat of Texas in the summertime, of eating barbecue with his bare hands and drinking just a little too much. He tells her about how he and Alex snuck out to the pier, how they clung to each other and swam under the stars. How Alex was seconds away from saying _I love you_ , how it was on the tip of his tongue. He talks about how he immediately put distance between them, how he left in the early hours of the morning, because he couldn’t bear being around Alex and loving him while knowing that they could never truly be together, how they would never get their happy ending.

“So, you broke up with Pops?”

“It wasn’t a breakup— we weren’t together.”

“Sounds like you were to me.” Sophie comments. She’s not crying anymore, but her eyes are puffy and rimmed red.

“Maybe we were, who knows at this point? I obviously don’t.” He laughs. “But we didn’t stay broken up for too long. Your father came to get me.”

“He _what?_ ”

“He came to get me, well, he came to knock some sense into me.” Henry repeats, giggling. “He booked a flight in the middle of the night using his emergency credit card, grabbed a secret serviceman, and came all the way to London to scream at me.” He explains. “So, we were arguing, and I was telling him to leave because I’m dramatic like that, when he calls me a ‘ _fucking asshole_ ’ and tells me that he loves me.”   
  


Sophie gasps. It makes him want to laugh, but he realizes how emotional it was at the time.

“What did you even _do_ after that?” She asks, in disbelief.  
  


“Well, I kissed him, and I cried, and he spent the night and next day with me.” He continues. “And I came to the realization that I just couldn’t live without him.” 

“Did you come out after that?”

“Yes and no. Came out to your uncle, and was outed to the rest of the world.”

He briefly goes over the candid photographs and private email server, tells her that it had been her grandmother’s political opponent in the upcoming election that had exposed them this way. 

“I— why didn’t you ever tell us?” Sophie asks, turning to face him.

“Well, it’s a lot to process, especially when you’re younger. We didn’t want to throw you lot into something you weren’t prepared to handle.”

She nods, clearing her throat. “How did the public handle it?”

“It was handled better than I could have ever imagined. Sure, a good number of people had something to say about it, but the response was mostly positive.” He tells her, noticing that she’s stopped crying completely, that her eyes aren’t even watering; this had been the perfect distraction.

“And then Grandma Ellen won, Richards got thrown in prison for a _bunch_ of different shit, and Dad and I moved to Brooklyn and settled down. The end.” Alex adds on from the doorway, making Henry jump and turn to face him. He’s got this stupid, cheeky grin on his face; Henry wants to kiss it off.   
  


“How long have you been eavesdropping on our conversation, hmm?” He demands to know, tone scolding, but not to be taken seriously with the smile that reaches his eyes, heat creeping up his neck. 

  
“Only the entire time,” Alex replies, making his way across the room. “June said she’s on the way— she’s got some stuff to pick up on her way over.”

“ _Ugh_ , I’m gonna have to explain it all over again. And I’m gonna have to deal with this at school on Monday.” Sophie groans, pushing her face into her hands. 

“I already told June that you didn’t wanna talk about it, she understands.” Alex says, placing a hand on Henry’s shoulder. “And I’m thinking you should stay home on Monday; when’s the last time you took a mental health day?”

Sophie laughs. 

Henry doesn’t find it to be very funny. 

“I think you should take Monday off as well. Love, you deserve a break after today. You can’t expect to function at full capacity all the time.” Henry notes, expression and tone taking on a stern sort of seriousness. 

She sighs, long and drawn out.

“If I fall behind, I’m blaming both of you.”  
  


“It’s one day, it shouldn’t be that bad.” Alex replies, and the conversation continues onwards, playful bouts back-and-forth exchanged between the three of them. 

June shows up with blankets, movies, and ice cream in tow, all fresh-faced and glowing with optimism despite the odd hour of the evening. The first thing that she does is hug Sophie, wrapping her niece up in her arms and holding her. There are tears, but they’re not necessarily of sadness or pain. They’re of comfort. They’re of catharsis.

They’re halfway into Gone Girl and their respective pints of ice cream when June peers over Sophie’s shoulder, staring down at her phone screen, her face contorting into an expression of pure distaste.

“That the guy who broke your heart?” She asks, gesturing to the home screen wallpaper that Sophie has yet to change.  
  


“Yep, Scott Harris. Captain of the baseball team, and the world’s biggest bitch.” Sophie sneers, and Henry can’t help chuckling leaning into Alexander for support, his husband’s frame silently shaking as he laughs.   
  


“His name is _Scott_ , honey. I think you knew what you were getting into.” June comments, spooning strawberry ice cream into her mouth. “And why would you stoop so low? Settle for someone like _that?_ ”

“Because he was _nice to me_ , Tía.”

June throws a withering glare Alex and Henry’s way.

It makes Henry gulp.

“Sweetie, it seems that you’ve been _failed_ by two men with _very_ limited emotional vocabularies. Allow me to teach you all the dos and don’ts for the modern lady on the lookout for love.” She replies, eyes steadfast on her brother and brother in-law.  
  


“Allow us to give you ladies some privacy.” Alexander intercepts quickly, purely to keep June from getting too wound up.

“Good,” June scoffs, tying her hair up and out of her face, bright purple acrylics shining from the light bouncing off their television. “Certainly don’t need two _boys_ learning our secrets.” She jokes. 

“Oh, definitely not.” Henry replies sarcastically, kissing Sophie’s head as he rises from the couch.

They get to the staircase when June calls out to them.

“Guys?”

“Yeah, Bug?”   
  


“You can expect a visit from me within the hour.” She tells them, voice sounding just a bit colder.

“Of course.” Henry replies.  
  


They’re screwed, but Sophie’s doing much better than she was before, and that’s all he cares about at the moment.   
  


They make it upstairs, shut their bedroom door, and count their blessings.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: @bi-disaster-fsotus  
> Sharkandegg on Tumblr: @handsomeroyalheretic


End file.
